Mat Isa, C M; Saman, H M and Preece, C N (2015) Determining significant factors influencing Malaysian construction business performance in international markets. Journal of Construction in Developing Countries, 20(2), pp. 1-23. ISSN 1823-6499
Abstract
Market expansion into foreign markets has become increasingly important for construction businesses, including Malaysian contractors. It is therefore imperative that these firms are able to sustain performance in international markets. This paper aims to determine the significant factors influencing the Malaysian contractors' performance in international markets. This study adopts a mixed method using questionnaires that were sent to 115 construction firms as a sampling frame. The quantitative findings were further validated through in-depth interviews with five firms currently operating at the international level. It was found that the firms' profit targets based on return on investment and revenues supported by the firms' competitive advantages due to employees' capabilities and competencies have significantly influenced the firms' performance. However, further insights disclosed that having strong and stable human relationships were very important to enhancing the firms' performance in international markets. The findings build further understanding of international strategies for construction in developing countries. Finally, the study identifies the need to develop a suitable tool to measure firms' performance by taking into consideration the complex elements within the identified significant influencing factors.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction firms; factors; international market; performance; qualitative; quantitative |
| Index terms: | construction business performance, mixed method, influencing factor, competitive advantage, markets, international market, return on investment, sampling, construction firm, revenue, profit, strategy, interview, developing country, questionnaire |
| Subjects: | market analysis, performance measurement, management, development economics, economic analysis, risk assessment, data collection methods, organization |
| Topics: | International Construction, Quality Management, Research Practice, Business Strategy, Risk Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here